Once in a lifetime

I’ve just returned from an extended weekend in New Zealand. Regular readers will recall that I joined the Entrepreneur’s Organisation (EO) in February last year. EO is a global business networking organization offering a range of benefits including access to talented business speakers, training content, and other invaluable resources.

The organization has chapters operating in major cities worldwide. The Sydney chapter has almost 200 members. Each local chapter is also divided into smaller groups of 6-8 members (called forums). Each forum meets monthly and organizes an annual offsite retreat to bond while sharing life and business experiences.

After some cajoling last October, I agreed to organize my forum’s annual retreat. I settled on Wellington as our chosen destination, in part because I was familiar with the city and in part because I could tap into a diverse personal network of potential speakers.

The brief for this event was challenging, to say the least. EO is big on developing the “whole person”. As a result, the group wanted to hear from people presenting on commercial topics, as well as speakers offering unique, or eclectic, perspectives on life. The group also wanted to include a “once in a lifetime” experience that elevated the event beyond that of another bulk-standard business conference.

 

After months of planning and preparation, I’m delighted to report that I successfully delivered an event that met the brief. Our retreat began on Thursday with breakfast in the Qantas Lounge (I took one lucky person for breakfast in the First Class Lounge). We then flew to Wellington and checked into QT hotel on the harbourfront. It sits opposite the national Te Papa Museum.

The forum kicked off our time in New Zealand by hosting a networking event with EO Wellington members before dining in a private room at Jano Bistro.  As the evening unfolded, we heard from my cousin Jennifer Parker. She spoke about New Zealand’s restorative justice program and how the program’s principles can be applied to business.

On Friday the forum came together for its monthly networking meeting. We then heard from two impressive business speakers including a local multi-millionaire who invited us to join him for drinks in his stunning penthouse overlooking the harbour. As the weather cleared, we finished the afternoon riding the Wellington cable car to Kelburn and walking back into town through the Botanic Gardens. 

Dinner that night was in a private room at Dockside where we heard from two speakers; Gary Scott, a New Zealand documentary filmmaker (whom I went to University with), and his defacto partner, Tracey Bridges a prominent Government lobbyist and entrepreneur. Tracey spoke on people's need for a sense of place and the challenge of integrating equity partners into a business. Gary reinforced her message about seeking a sense of place and shared how it often shapes his storytelling.

 

The weather on Friday morning was abysmal. Torrential rain and gale-force winds lashed the city for hours before finally clearing mid-afternoon. Our “once in a lifetime” experience was completely weather dependent. Hence I was relieved when we woke on Saturday morning to blue skies and calm weather.

The group was met by helicopter at Queens Wharf in the central city. We then set a course across Cook Strait, making our way to the Bay of Many Coves Resort. This exclusive boutique lodge is nestled on the shores of a picturesque bay in the Marlborough Sounds. You can only access it by boat – or helicopter. Our group was given a private dining room with expansive views across the water, including exclusive access to a shaded balcony. After a superb lunch, we flew back to Wellington in time to enjoy the sights and sounds of Homegrown, the city’s annual waterfront music festival.

 
The flights across Cook Strait were truly breathtaking. However, the highlight for me was seeing the notorious Cook Strait ferry sail through the Tory Channel headlands on its way to Wellington. I also got to sit in the co-pilot seat on return to Wellington. This gave me an enviable view of everything. A once in a lifetime experience for sure.

On Sunday I rose early to catch a flight to Tauranga. This allowed me to visit Mum on Sunday morning and again on Monday before catching a flight back to Sydney. On Sunday Mum and I enjoyed an alfresco lunch on the waterfront near the city’s renowned Hairy McCleary statue.

Thunderbirds are go!

Wellington put on quite a show for the final two days of our North Island road trip. The weather played its part with sunny skies and light winds.  We also got lucky with a last minute change of hotel.  I used some loyalty points to book us into the Doubletree by Hilton. This is a new venue.  It opened last year in a restored colonial building directly opposite the Wellington Cable Car station.

Thanks to my Gold Hilton Honors membership the hotel upgraded us to a spacious corner room that was pure decadence.  My status also gave us a free breakfast each morning which proved to be an impressive daily buffet.  We also received a couple of free drink coupons.  For a free room, we certainly felt rewarded for our loyalty!

Our first full day in town was spent riding the Cable Car up to Kelburn where spent an hour or more exploring the Cable Car Museum.  I can't recall visiting this attraction before but it proved to be an interesting insight into the history of Wellington's early suburban development and the public transport that enabled it.

A leisurely road tour along the city's coastal roads eventually led us to our lunch destination.  We bought Fish & Chips from Huckle & Co in Seatoun and spent an hour relaxing on the harbour foreshore at the nearby Wahine Memorial Park.  The fish was as fresh as you can get it.  We literally watched the chef fillet it before tossing into the deep fryer.

We then spent the afternoon at Weta Cave, the home of Peter Jackson's famous special effect studio.  We booked the classic behind the scenes tour and followed this with its Thunderbirds set tour.  Both tours were fascinating.  We learnt how Jackson created many of the special effects that made his Lord of Ring trilogy so epic; before getting up close and personal with its Thunderbirds miniature sound stage.

Our final day in town was devoted to a leisurely morning of shopping before making our way to the airport via the Mount Victoria lookout.  The view from the summit was as stunning as ever.  Wellington really does sparkle in the sunshine.  Before we knew it, our flight was boarding and our vacation was well and truly over.

Doing battle in Wellington

I unexpectedly found myself in Wellington last month.  My Mum was admitted to hospital in New Zealand’s windy capital after falling ill while visiting friends.  In the end, she spent 15 days in the ward while the doctors debated her fate.  She was eventually discharged and flew home for more out-patient treatment and tests in Tauranga.

For several months now Mum has been experiencing painful joint inflammation and a worrying bout of joint infection that has the doctors baffled.  In Wellington, they debated endlessly as to whether she had an infectious disease or a rather nasty version of auto-immune rheumatoid arthritis. As of today they're still not 100 per cent sure what's happening.  However, her white cell blood tests are clear and so an infectious disease has been ruled out as the source of her illness.

Her admission to hospital while out of town resulted in my brother and I taking turns to fly into Wellington to support her and navigate the joys of New Zealand’s public hospital system.  Garry and I will be in Wellington for a couple of days while on our Christmas vacation so the early reconnaissance visit was unanticipated.

However, in between meeting doctors and nursing Mum, I did find a little time to catch up with relatives, visit a former employer and tour The Great War Exhibition at the National War Memorial.  The exhibition was very impressive.  The Trench Experience is a real highlight.  Designed by Peter Jackson (director, writer, and producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) this simulation of an ANZAC trench at Gallipoli has proven highly controversial. 

The experience was only ever designed to be a temporary exhibit. It was created to celebrate the centenary of the World War I armistice. However, the Trench Experience ran over budget and ultimately open more than year behind schedule.  Sadly the entire exhibit will be demolished and removed before the end of the year at a “make good” cost of more than $7million. 

The exhibition is outstanding and the Trench Experience was well worth the entry fee.  The extraordinary diorama of The Battle of Chunuk Bair is simply brilliant. It includes more than 5000 tiny pewter warriors each painted and positioned on scale model of the hilly terrain that rose up from the narrow, gravel beaches of Gallipoli.  It’s such a shame that this world-class exhibit will be destroyed a few weeks from now.

Hotel de Wheels

Everyone raves about the Museum Art Hotel in Wellington.  The hotel had a great room rate on offer last week so I decided to try it for myself.  The fish sculpture you can see above greeted me every morning as I waited for an elevator.  However, the most interesting exhibit in the lift lobby was a display case capturing the story of the building's relocation several years earlier.

The building once sat on the edge of Wellington harbour.  In 1993 the 3,500 tonne reinforced concrete structure was moved 180 metres along the waterfront and then back across a major road to its current location  It was relocated to make way for the new Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa.  The entire feat was achieved by carefully cut its foundation piers, then lifting the  building onto giant rail trolleys which were then pushed delicately along temporary rail tracks by enormous ram jacks.

Here's how Stuff.co.nz summed up the relocation on its 20th anniversary last year:

• 3000-tonne, four-storey building - the largest ever shifted in New Zealand.
• $2.4 million cost ($3.7m in today's dollars).
• 3 months of preparation for a 3-day move, in two stages
• 120-metre shift - 80m east along Cable St (August 14-15, 1993), a 90-degree rotation and 40m south across Cable St (August 21).
• 5-10 metres an hour - the average speed of the building when moved
• 3 kilometres of rail line on 8 tracks.
• 96 "bogie" rail trolleys pushed by 8 hydraulic rams.
• 120 tonnes of push needed to move the building.
• 48-hour closure of Cable St for final track-laying and relocation.
• 1000-strong crowds watching the various stages of the move

Australia Day in Aotearoa

We've just returned from a three-day weekend in Wellington, New Zealand's windy capital city. The weather was mainly sunny and the winds were mild most days. The first full afternoon in town was windy and so I was able to convince Garry that this really is New Zealand's windy capital.  There's nothing like a horizon smothered in white caps and wind-blown water gusts to make your point.

We stayed in a hotel on Cuba Street, an area that's fast beginning Wellington's cafe and night life hotspot.  We ate some superb Thai close to our hotel and were somewhat bemused by the antics of harmless weekend revelers.  As you'd expect we took in all of the regular sights; the Kilburn Cable Car, Te Papa National Museum, the National Archives (where tattered copies of the Treaty of Whitangi can be found) and the spectacular Kapiti Coast.

Here's a quick panorama taken from the top of Mount Victoria (below). It's a stunning view, shared with just a handful of noisy Japanese tour buses. Click on the photo for a full-size image.  More details on our weekend coming soon.